Asia-Pacific Tourism Marketing Evaluation Workshop

Date

The twenty-eighth joint meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and the UNWTO Commission for South Asia was held in Nara, Japan, on 3 June 2016.

The meeting was chaired by Philippines and co-chaired by India. There were over one hundred participants representing Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, I. R. Iran, Japan, Laos, Macao (China), Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Affiliate members from Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and Thailand were also represented. In addition to these participants, member states from outside the region (i.e. Zimbabwe and Jamaica), officials from international and regional organizations as well as industry representatives attended the event.

In the Agenda Item 12: AFFILIATE MEMBERS’ INTERVENTION AND OTHER MATTERS, Bhutan raised two-pronged request to the UNWTO Secretariat, in which they propose UNWTO to conduct a workshop on tourism marketing and promotion of destinations in order to draw lessons from the best practices of different NTAs/NTOs. The request has received positive responses from all participating Member States.

Objective

The workshop is designed to draw lessons from the best practices of different NTAs/NTOs´ marketing and promotional plan for the sector taking into account the quality and quantity of tourism products, the diversity of domestic, regional and international source markets, image and positioning, branding, quality and distribution of promotional materials (including e-marketing) and institutional mechanisms for marketing and promotion including public-private partnership.

Methodology

Evaluation and assessment of the current marketing and promotional programmes in the country including the promotional materials products, the distribution channels, as well as the electronic marketing techniques.

Case studies to review the existing institutional framework for marketing the country as a tourism destination, and identify and recommend organizational changes required to ensure the effective implementation of the marketing strategy involving strong public-private partnership.

Case studies to share the medium and long-term marketing strategy including recommendations for destination branding and identification of the financial and technical resources required to implement the strategy, and the overall marketing strategy, which includes a detailed short-term marketing and promotional programme for year-base periods, outlining activities, targets and cost estimates on a yearly basis.